Jun 25, 2026 · 2 hr 17 min · 21 segments
Bob and Ali talk to Judge Carol Erskine about this case See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at…
Carol ErskineGuestBob MataHostAliHost
One of the things I said in one of my posts is that they have been, Spilka and Mariano have been in the Senate and the House for more than 20 years.
They've had leadership positions during those 20 years, even before they were a Senate president and House speaker.
And in that period of time, as it shows on that, seven children in Massachusetts that were associated with DCF have been murdered.
And that, you know, somehow trying to get them to and then the children that have been murdered aside from Harmony, David Almond, which happened during the time I was a judge, not in my court, autistic 14 year old, brutally abused and starved to death, you know, right under the nose of DCF.
I mean, these kids have all died while Mariano and Spilka have been in the Senate.
And while they have had enough leadership positions to do something about it, but they don't.
I'm just grateful to both of you for just giving us the chance to tell Harmony's story.
because you know what? You could be sitting on a beach somewhere, enjoying your retirement from working so hard throughout your entire career, and yet you choose to fight for children.
And I just want to say, you know, one of the things that you're battling is a Supreme Court opinion from February 22nd, 1989, in Deshaney versus Winnebago County, which is here in Illinois, where the Supreme Court held in a case...
That mirrors a lot of this, where the state knew, the DCFS knew, and the court said that there is no constitutional duty to protect children or child from his father after receiving reports of possible abuse.
They went on to say that there's nothing in the language of the due process clause that requires a state to protect life, liberty, and property of its citizens against private actors.
And that the purpose of the due process clause was to protect people from the state, not to ensure the state protected them from each other.
washed their hands of it.
30 some odd years ago, I will say that I've always loved the actual dissent from Justice Blackmun in that case, where he says, poor Joshua, victim of repeated attacks by an irresponsible bullying cowardly and intemperate father, does that sound familiar? And this is over 30 years ago, and abandoned by the respondents, meaning DSS, who placed him in a dangerous predicament and who knew or learned what was going on and yet did essentially nothing, as the court revealingly observes.
Isn't that what happened to Harmony? The same thing that happened to Joshua years ago.
He says, it's a sad commentary upon American life and constitutional principles.
One of the things I said in one of my posts is that they have been, Spilka and Mariano have been in the Senate and the House for more than 20 years.
They've had leadership positions during those 20 years, even before they were a Senate president and House speaker.
And in that period of time, as it shows on that, seven children in Massachusetts that were associated with DCF have been murdered.
And that, you know, somehow trying to get them to and then the children that have been murdered aside from Harmony, David Almond, which happened during the time I was a judge, not in my court, autistic 14 year old, brutally abused and starved to death, you know, right under the nose of DCF.
I mean, these kids have all died while Mariano and Spilka have been in the Senate.
And while they have had enough leadership positions to do something about it, but they don't.
I'm just grateful to both of you for just giving us the chance to tell Harmony's story.
because you know what? You could be sitting on a beach somewhere, enjoying your retirement from working so hard throughout your entire career, and yet you choose to fight for children.
And I just want to say, you know, one of the things that you're battling is a Supreme Court opinion from February 22nd, 1989, in Deshaney versus Winnebago County, which is here in Illinois, where the Supreme Court held in a case...
That mirrors a lot of this, where the state knew, the DCFS knew, and the court said that there is no constitutional duty to protect children or child from his father after receiving reports of possible abuse.
They went on to say that there's nothing in the language of the due process clause that requires a state to protect life, liberty, and property of its citizens against private actors.
And that the purpose of the due process clause was to protect people from the state, not to ensure the state protected them from each other.
washed their hands of it.
30 some odd years ago, I will say that I've always loved the actual dissent from Justice Blackmun in that case, where he says, poor Joshua, victim of repeated attacks by an irresponsible bullying cowardly and intemperate father, does that sound familiar? And this is over 30 years ago, and abandoned by the respondents, meaning DSS, who placed him in a dangerous predicament and who knew or learned what was going on and yet did essentially nothing, as the court revealingly observes.
Isn't that what happened to Harmony? The same thing that happened to Joshua years ago.
He says, it's a sad commentary upon American life and constitutional principles.
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